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Child sexual abuse is preventable, not inevitable

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About this talk

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Professor Elizabeth Letourneau has devoted her life’s work to changing how people view child sexual abuse. In her 2016 TEDMED Talk, Elizabeth explains how initiatives that target juvenile sex offenders can play an important role in preventing future offenses.

About Elizabeth Letourneau

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Elizabeth Letourneau is a clinical psychologist who is dedicated to preventing child sexual abuse. She is a professor and the inaugural director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Elizabeth believes that child sexual abuse should be treated as a preventable public health problem, much like a disease that can be stopped from spreading. She has spent her career developing programs to prevent this harm from ever happening. A key part of her work is creating and testing interventions for young people who may be at risk of engaging in harmful behaviors. As a past president of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, she is a respected leader in her field. Through her research, advocacy, and work at the Moore Center, Elizabeth is changing the conversation around child sexual abuse, shifting the focus from simply reacting to these issues to stopping them before they start.

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